60 Bedtime Activities

to promote connection and fun

1. Pick each other’s , and both and put them on at the same time. 2. Have a tooth brushing party with everyone in the complete with music and dancing. 3. Share 5 favorite things about your child with them. 4. Make up a where someone in the family is the main character and kid has to guess which family member it is. 5. Wheelbarrow around (hold your child’s ankle’s and have them walk through their routine on their hands). 6. ‘Simon Says’ throughout bedtime routine. 7. Enforce a ‘No talking only singing’ rule. 8. Read a bedtime story in a silly voice. 9. Make up your own knock-knock jokes. 10. Communicate only through gestures and hand signals. 11. Pick the craziest pajamas possible. 12. Have the most serious bedtime ever. No laughing. 13. Play a board game with crazy backward rules. 14. Walk everywhere backward. 15. Try to put on your child’s pajamas while they lay on the floor deadweight. 16. Swap roles and pretend to be each other (think Parent Trap) 17. How many stuffed animals can we fit in the challenge? 18. Everyone picks an animal to imitate through the routine. 19. Roleplay your favorite historical character through the routine. 20. Make a ‘YouTube’ video on how to have an epic bedtime routine. 21. Listen to each other’s favorite songs together. 22. Brush each other’s teeth. 23. Race to see who gets through routine first parent or child.

24. Plan breakfast the following day. 25. Have a shadow puppet show. 26. Try a guided meditation (a great app to use is Breathe Kids). 27. Try some fun yoga poses. 28. Use some calming essential oils such as lavender. 29. Write poems together. 30. Role play through a team sport while getting dressed and brushing teeth. 31. Journal together or next to each other. 32. Put a puzzle together. 33. Play a board game. 34. Build a collaborative LEGO creation. 35. Write a song together. 36. Share ‘roses and thorns’ of the day. 37. Pray. 38. List 10 things you’re grateful for. 39. Have a bedtime snack one on one. 40. Rock your big kid like a baby and sing to them. 41. Color in a calming coloring book. 45. Have tea time. 46. Try doing a calming body scan together like this one. 47. Try finger knitting with some pretty yarn. 48. Listen to an audiobook (find through your public library). 49. Give each other massages. 50. Style each other’s hair. 51. Lay out clothes for the following day. 52. Put up glow stars on the ceiling and make a wish. 53. Exchange favorite memories with each other. 54. List every feeling you had today. 55. Make a human taco or burrito with cozy . 56. Share an embarrassing story from your childhood. 57. Look through a family photo album. 58. Take a loved stuffy through the nighttime routine (aka put them in pj’s and brush their teeth). 59. Share bedtimes stories in a circle with a flashlight. 60. Share your family tree/ancestors with your child.